Port Vale boss Neil Aspin demanded his players use the reserves to show him why he should keep them at the club – and couldn’t have asked for much more from striker Anton Forrester.

The 24 year old scored all four goals, all in the first half, in the Valiants’ 4-0 win at home to Bradford City at Vale Park this afternoon.

That will have given Aspin food for thought as he considers not only whether the striker should be in his plans for Saturday’s first-team home game with Lincoln City, but also whether the player should be offered a new deal when his contract runs out at the end of this season.

Read More

Facing Lincoln’s first team will be a different proposition to facing a young Bradford reserve side. The manager will also be weighing up whether the former Blackburn striker’s inconsistency and injuries – which have limited him to 20 league starts and 13 substitute appearances in his two seasons at Vale Park – should count for more than his scoring exploits in this game or the hat-trick he scored for the reserves against Morecambe in February.

Anton Forrester celebrates his goal for Port Vale at Barnet

That said, Forrester didn’t just impress in front of goal. His first touch, hold up play and awareness shone as he played with a real swagger. On this evidence you could see why owner Norman Smurthwaite brought him to the club in the summer of 2016. Now Aspin must decide whether he has seen enough to ask him to stay.

Read More

Harness was inches away when he cut in from the right and burst between two defenders but smacked the ball left-footed against the bar from 16 yards.

But Forrester netted his, and Vale’s, fourth, on 38 minutes when he dropped his shoulder to beat a defender in the area before placing the ball across the keeper and inside the far post.

Port Vale striker Anton Forrester

Bradford had been swept aside by Mick Ede’s Valiants, but the Bantams, coached by former Vale captain Sam Collins, deserve some credit for battling back in a far more even second half of few chances.

Drake made a flying stop to keep out Harry Middleton’s 25-yard effort on 80 minutes but Vale keeper Blight made an even better save moments later when he pushed away Reece Pownall’s powerful 12-yard drive.